28 March 2012

extending illustrations

I have spent a decent amount of money on picture books in my day, and I love reading aloud to children. There are few things as engaging as a fantastic story told well. And I think we can agree that it is important to foster a love of books.

The picture book puzzlers offer a pile of ideas for the classroom: using pictures as a prompt to talk about similarities between stories; having children "hunt" for pictures in a classroom, school, or public library; or using snippets of an illustration (a la Tana Hoban) to spark conversation and debate.

It is important to read books to children, but there are so many ways that we can use books to explore, expanding their possibilities.